The use of microfiltration membranes in the form of strips or discs is well known in the field of medical diagnostics. Also, the use of disc-shaped magazines in hand-held devices for blood sugar measurements is, for example, known from W02009/037192. A disadvantage of directly cutting flat rings of material is the loss of material, which is very pronounced especially in the case of narrow rings. Hence, in the case of a ring of 49 mm outer diameter and 39 mm inner diameter, one only uses 28.8% of a quadratic initial area from which the ring is cut. If rings are cut out of an initial area in the densest possible arrangement, then theoretically 33.2% can be utilized at most, but in practice less. With the high costs of membranes, the yield of utilizable area plays an important economic role above all for mass-produced products. Moreover, the handling of individual membrane areas is time consuming and mechanically demanding and prone to errors
Therefore further advancements are required in this technological area to further improve the processes and devices known in the prior art and to optimize the use of material and handling of consumables in the field of diagnostic applications.